Art Trap Productions

Being Human Season One

BEING HUMAN is just about the smartest idea for a TV series ever. When I first heard about it in some magazine, I thought, and there would be nothing wrong with this, that it was going to be a sitcom the likes of BEWITCHED, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, and others mixed with THREE'S COMPANY. It wasn't something I sought to watch. Then I actualy heard about the show on the previous forum. Somebody, thankfully, told me it was really good and I recalled hearing about it in that magazine.

All the actors are really good. I sort didn't like the two in the pilot who were the Vampire Marshall and Annie the Ghost. They were okay but they are not as good IMO as the two who play Annie and Marshall in the series from ep1 onward. The actor who plays George is perfect. The girl who plays Marshall's victim Lauren is perfect also, she has just the right mix of vengeful evil and over the edge savagery with a just a slight hint of her former humanity underneath. The show is not predictable. Even the second string players such as Annie's boyfriend Owen do great jobs. Episode One is very well done as Marshall cannot seem to resist his vampire urges but does; George tries to find a place to change; Annie sees Owen...and his girlfriend...none of the trio has a good day. Yet they see each other for what they are and love each other anyway. Annie's wanting to stay in when it's just the three of them is most touching, as if the "monsters" outside can't touch them.

Hennick, the main vampire is most unattractive, however, he wields a lot of power with just a slight blink. As I said, the acting is good and the filming is extraordinary. There's less sitcomy joking than you might think but there is some. Annie's watching George change is an exciting scene, not for the effects but for the reactions we get from Annie and Marshall. Truly a great episode.

Lots happens in this episode, which seems to span over a month and happens a month after the last episode. Lauren is back and tring to get Mitchell back to her side. Both she and Herrick are excellent villains and have layers of depth in their personalities. Herrick remains scary even when Annie sees him after Lauren seems to have killed someone. And to get Mitchell back there's this dvd...which causes a lot of problems now and in the future for the trio.

Added to this is Tully, a man who seems to be following George around. I wish we found out a lot more about Tully but maybe in some future episode. We do find out some stuff about him...like he's a werewolf, he's lonely, he killed people before, he HAD wife and son but we don't know if they are dead or not, AND he made George the werewolf that he was. He insinuates himself into the lives of the trio and at first, both Annie and Mitchell love him; then the reverse happens. Tully starts training George to survive his transformations and also to ask out Nina at the hospital. This makes George becomes his "mini me" as Annie says. Then, Tully makes advances on Annie and this makes Annie and Mitchell want him out of their apartment. George doesn't want that.

The loyalty of the trio is put into play and question in this strong episode. All the actors do a great job. Dean Lennox who plays Tully is decidedly sympathetic, pathetic, strong, creepy, abusive, and wicked, manipulative and loyal, sometimes all at the same time. It's an amazing performance from a person playing a real slimeball of a character but...he's just lonely. There's more to him and in future I wonder if he will be returning as an ally or a major villain...

Add to this that Mitchell wants George to accept he is a werewolf ("Hi my name's George and I"m a werewolf"), Mitchell inviting all the neighbors over for a drink...and later he seems to be spying on those same neighbors when his blood lust seems to be taking a vampiric hold, a visit from Lauren, the dvd, a kiss from Mitchell to Annie, Annie taking to the streets to see Herrick grabbing Lauren off them and into a car, while Herrick also seems to be giving Annie a warning )"Tick Tock, Tick Tock") and you have a jam packed soapy episode that just ...rocks.

It may be a bit upsetting but in the end, the loyalty of the trio comes through ("Leave you two alone for five minutes")...

but the dvd is fetched from the garbage by Mitchell, who also appears in CASABLANCA as an extra knocking over a chair...

This show is just unpredictable, well acted, well written, and well made. Bristol's setting is refreshing and airy and the show is well filmed as well. The story is really one long story and tha'ts good.

This episode is what does it. The IT is what makes this show so great. The intertwining problems of the vampire Mitchell, the ghost Annie, and the werewolf George reach new heights of entertainment and new depths of sadness and interest. Anyone who doesn't want to find out more about these three and what will happen to them despite their respective problems (a boyfriend who killed you, a girlfriend who wants to have sex with you just before the full moon rises, a girlfriend who wants you to give her your blood) just isn't a horror fan or a tv fan or a fantasy fan. The actors and the characters are engaging, the show is soap and addictive and funny and emotional and clever.

This episode furthers everything even more than ep2 did. The three cast members are likable and play the audience with their voices, their eyes, their motions.

There's also another ghost who is also likable and who's exploits are compared to Annie's and come to a conclusion rather quickly but nicely and it all fits together so well. I wish this show would have more episodes behind just 6 or 8 because it SO deserves it. It is truly amazing in writing and acting and execution. It keeps a viewer interested and involved, shedding tears, making laughs, and just glued to the tv set. Current 2009 DOCTOR WHO, granted is in its late 4th season and going into its early 5th, can learn a lesson from this show.

Well now, if this isn't the BEST series on English tv EVER! How very good is this show! Okay the situations they find themselves in are a little upsetting but tha't is only because the characters and the actors are so NICE and LIKABLE, it's hard to see them suffer and go through what they have to go through. Annie thinks her reason for being here is to make Owen happy, then to make him pay when she found out he killed her, then to make him scared of her...only he is...at first...then he's just as bitchy and mean spirited as any villain can be. Annie's reactions are so bitterly and sweetly human...she first tries to warn Janey, Owen's next girlfriend and who might be his next victim, then she gives up.

Loyalty is a part of this show and as it is, George warms her to the idea that they have to help Mitchell...who's rejoined the vampire covenant in a funeral home. B.edwards. Why did Mitchell do that? In ep4, a boy is saved by Mitchell by two bullies and befriended. The boy accidentally gets the DVD that has Lauren (invisible) killing a man, who is naked and having sex with her! This created a very upsetting misunderstanding and the whole neighborhood goes against Mitchell and George! On top of that MItchell might have to save the boy by making him a vampire! WTF! How good is this show.

In the next ep, Mitchell meets an old flame who is human and now much older than he is. ANd she's dying of lung cancer. She's suspicious of Hennrick's plan to convert...well, pretty much anyone who needs converting but he also does not want anyone left behind. He sells it to Mitchell as it all being voluntary until Mitchell finds a room with...food...human food. That's the only scene that's rushed and sort of wonkily played but everything else is perfect.

George has two great lines "In Laurel and Hardy? What else have you got hidden away up there, German scat in copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?" To which Mitchell says, "I've never seen Scat, well just this once just to see what it was."

And George's other line is about his and Annie's rescue attempt of Mitchell. "We're like the gayest ninjas."

Mitchell's actor is so great it's amazing. No totally brooding TWILIGHT jerk, he imbibes Mitchell with a sort of intelligent knowledge of things supernatural AND a humor that's bordering on sarcastic wit and joking playfulness. It's an amazing performance that makes vampires interesting again rather than all TWILIGHT like or DRACULA or anything else for that matter.

And what can I say about Annie's MANY dilemmas in these two episodes: the major one being should she go through the door or not as Micthell lay dying.

The only thing I don't like about this is that, as in most movies and tv shows, they have to try to make believe heaven doesn't exist and that what is through the door is mostly bad...I find that annoying and unattractive, being someone who believes in an afterlife of some kind, not necessarily harps and fluffy clouds and resting your eyes and body.

But there's not one, NOT ONE boring moment or stupid moment or silly moment in these two episodes, indeed in this entire season really. The show is just spot on and deserves a full 22 episode run for the next season. DON'T MISS THIS SHOW!

Bloody hell! That was good. I didn't expect George to do what he did and didn't expect Mitchell, after finding out that George was in the basement with Herrick, instead of having Herrick come meet Mitchell on the roof ---all set up by George to save Mitchell---let George go ahead iwth his original plan. I also wasn't sure that the werewolf would be able to take on a vampire as savage as Herrick. I was surprised by Mitchell's draining (did he? and why wasn't it found out that she had no blood in her) of his former lover --a truly nice character. We find out how George met Mitchell and we see Nina has been scratched by teh werewolf...

Annie gets super powers ("They should make an action figure out of you"...heck, I'd buy it and one of George and Mitchell, too). I"m not sure what will bode for Annie's new powers, Nina's being scratched, or George's having killed Herrick or who the old man was at the end or whom he called on his cell phone, a Dr. Jerad or Jerhyde? What?

Either way, it doesn't matter. This series is fantastic from start to finish. This episode culminates in the loyalty that runs throughout this series and if they are being human has failed as a challenge to the main characters the series has not. Thrilling, riveting, and totally revelant. Don't miss this show.

The pilot has different actors playing Mitchell and Annie and to be honest, they don't do much for me really. The Mitchell actor has his funny moments and Annie has some good scenes but it's difficult to understand her accent and maybe that's part of the problem. The other is she's not a very good actress. Every scene she's in she puts me to sleep. The Mitchell actor just doesn't have the IT one needs to play a vampire. That said, other parts of this are scattered throughout the scripts for season one and they're better there. The only scene that's really interesting beyond the rest is when Annie must leave the house to go open the door to save George's girlfriend from two years ago as the girl trapped herself without knowing that she was in danger from it...with George in the old room. Annie having to face going out for the first time is just amazing as she has to save George's girlfriend. I don't believe the excitement of that scene is really realized in the similar scene as Annie has to open the door to save George from Herrick but it's close and overall the pilot is the weakest of the seven episodes. Other weaker actors than the ones we know from the actual first season are the actors playing Herrick and Lauren. They just don't have that menace mixed with humanity and cheap laughs that the two actors that play them in the series have. The locations are amazing in this and it is nice to have George and Mitchell meet Annie, something I forgot about in the series...did they meet her in the series in the first episode? I can't recall. Either way the pilot was interesting to see but it doesn't have the greatness that series one has. Most of that has to do with the actors being miscast in this and perfectly cast in the series. This is worth a look though.